Tue May 20, 2014 at 21:21:16 PM EDT

Who Tweeted this: "I now believe global warming alarmists are unpatriotic racists knowingly misleading for their own ends. Good night."? It's one of the guys in this photo:

Specifically, the guy third from the right in the front row. He's one of the younger looking old white people (if not for the skirt in the pink blouse two ladies and the one young guy hidden in the back, in fact, it would be all old white dudes). If he looks familiar and you haven't heard about this story, it's Pat Sajak, the host of Wheel of Fortune.

This photo isn't some kind of winners circle for Wheel of Fortune, however. It's a picture of the Board of Trustees at Hillsdale College. Pat Sajak, the game show host who Tweeted that people who take global warming seriously are unpatriotic racists, is the vice president of Hillsdale College's Board of Trustees.

Lest you think this has anything to do with policing thoughts or trying to punish people for having strong opinions, let me correct. This is about someone charged with overseeing an institution of higher learning -- public or private -- who is condemning in the worst way people who accept an explanation supported by the world's scientific community of an emerging phenomenon. I'll leave it to the individual to conclude what this might mean for the quality of an education someone might receive at fair Hillsdale College.

I live in Greater Detroit, where Wheel of Fortune comes on before Jeopardy!. I watch the latter game regularly, but often tune in Wheel beforehand. Not anymore.

Pat Sajak's tweet about global warming is the epitome of ignorance: the vast majority of climate scientists believe that global warming is real, that humans are responsible for it, and that we face serious consequences unless we stop emitting greenhouse gases.

Mr. Sajak didn't stop there. He proceeded to call those who disagree with him "unpatriotic." Excuse me? Who appointed him a one-man House Un-American Activities Committee? I happen to be a member of the bar and a published author. One of my books, part of the Point/Counterpoint series, is about global warming. I dare say that I've forgotten more about the issue than he claims to know.

He also called those who believe in global warming "racists." Really? Does he realize that most of the victims of global warming--drought refugees in particular--are black? Can he even find the drought-ravaged countries on the map?

Mr. Sajak is a classic example of the Peter Principle: a competent game-show host who has reached his level of incompetence as a climate scientist, political commentator, and arbiter of others' good citizenship. I shall never watch him again. Good night.

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

I did an internship at a Tee Vee station waaaaaay back in the day, and it was explained to me that it used to be common practice to not hire actual meterologists to do the weather, but to just hire people who can appear on the air.

Beyond that, weathermen have a strange relationship with climate change. For some reason, and owing to the very clear difference between climate and weather, they tend to be some of the most vocal climate deniers. A lot of those people don't appear to be actual meteorologists (Anthony Watts, one of the most prominent, might not have graduated from college), mind you, but talking heads.

All white. One person under 200, and two women (I just saw another one hidden in the back).

It's a private institution, so they're free to pick their trustees as they see fit. But, again, they have on their board, an entity normally tasked with making sure that whatever is being overseen is shaped according to internal values, a guy who believes that most of the global scientific community is engaging in behavior that is borderline treasonous.

He kinda, sorta walked it back by saying that it's sometimes fun to poke at hornets' nests to get everything a-stirring (fun isn't quite the word I'd use to describe riling up insects that can envenomate you multiple times, but to each his or her own), but he's apparently been trolling this issue several times the last couple of weeks.

Either he's incredibly stupid or he sees the path to a lucrative late career as a rightwing pundit laid down by Ann Coulter and Ted Nugent ... say something obnoxious, stupid and offensive and after people start to complain roll in the dough shoveled at him by aggrieved conservatives who insist that his Constitutional right to say whatever he wants without fear of rebuttal are being trampled.

strange concept of free speech. They can say whatever they want--witness Sajak's accusation of treason--but those who respond with an opposing view are out of line. It's really a rather childlike view, basically they are at the center of the universe and others must accommodate them.